1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to moving materials on walls of building structures, and more particularly, to an apparatus for use in installing insulation, or other flexible materials, or for generally moving materials on walls of building structures.
2. Description of Related Art
During the fabrication of metal frame buildings, wall installation is commonly installed by placing a roll of insulation on a carriage and supporting the carriage on the building roof framework. The carriage travels across the roof along a side wall as strips of insulation are dispensed from the roll and secured to the building wall. Typical apparatii of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,992,847 and 4,078,355. In another arrangement, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,383,398, a cage supported on tines of a forklift carries two rolls of insulation with one being above the other.
When an apparatus of the type described above is used along a portion of the roof that is horizontal, the insulation hangs straight down for easy installation. However, when such an apparatus is used along a building wall where the roof slopes from one end of the wall to another end of the wall, the carriage is inclined to the horizontal from side-to-side and strips of insulation do not hang straight down from the carriage. As a result, the insulation is slanted, or otherwise misaligned, relative to the walls it is to be installed in and additional handling of the insulation is required prior to final installation of the insulation. Therefore, it would be desirable to have an arrangement for leveling the axis of the roll of insulation when the carriage is inclined so that the insulation, or other material, delivered from the carriage is properly aligned with the walls.
Further, the carriage tends to slide, or lose traction, when traveling uphill or downhill on a sloping roof. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a positive drive arrangement to ensure that the carriage will not slip, or lose traction, even when traveling along the incline of a sloping roof. Such drive arrangement could be a positive drive system.
An apparatus of the type described above commonly supports only one roll of insulation, or a second roll that is not conveniently movable to a dispensing position. As a result, manual intervention is often required to supply additional rolls of insulation material, or to position a second roll appropriately for dispensing from the carriage. Thus, it would be desirable to have a carriage system whereby a plurality of rolls of insulation, or other materials, is supported and is easily indexed when a prior roll of insulation, or other material, is exhausted. In this manner, all, or a significant portion, of a building wall may be insulated before it is necessary to reload the carriage with additional rolls of insulation.